sick bat in cup, box turtle

As soon as we got to the shore across from the boathouse in Prospect Park, which was so loaded with sweet gum fruits it was hard not to think of ball bearings as we tried to avoid sliding into the lake, a man gave my husband a cup. I assumed it had worms in it to use as bait (no worries about the fish, the kids spent all day breaking and knotting their lines so profoundly the fish were never safer.) Turned out the cup, complete with lid, held a bat resting on a bed of leaves.

At the Audobon center the woman behind the information desk was at a loss as to what to do with this bat. Luckily a man from the Theodore Roosevelt Wildlife Sanctuary at Oyster Bay was there and offered to take it to the sanctuary with him when he left at the end of the day. From the look of his bins, I assumed he'd be spending the day birding. But as for the bat, it didn't look good, it had no fight of flight response, just laid nose down on its heap of leaves, so I couldn't tell if its nose was whitish with that condition that's been killing bats for the last year or so.











The Eastern Box Turtle was on display in the Audobon Center. I haven't been so close to one of these animals since I was a child and I got a little choked up, thinking of the ones my dad would rescue from road sides and bring home. The turtle handler on duty, Steven, told me that his red eyes meant that he was male. So sexy, right ladies? Who can resist flaming red eyes? This critter was at least 18 years old Steven told me, which was determined by counting certain ridges within one of the scutes in its shell. This only works until they stop growing, and then you're out of luck.